Kilo Lingo

Line drawing of faldi
Coloured illustration of faldi
#2165 of 5,000 Core 5000

Translation

to fold

Word origin

From the Germanic fold word: German falten and English fold both come from the same root, and Esperanto took it whole as fald-.

Origin
Germanic
Root
falten
English cognates
fold

Examples

.

He folded the letter and put it on the table.

.

Fold the paper and give it to me.

.

The bird folded its wings.

is a single root with a plain infinitive ending, and the -ald- in the middle of it is not a piece of anything. Esperanto has no -ald- affix; strip it and you are left with f and i, which is the clearest possible sign that there was never a seam there.

The verb is transitive: something folds the thing. works, and if you want the map to fold itself you add -- and get i, in the usual way described in igi and iĝi. Around it sit the derivations you would predict: faldo is a fold or a crease, a means foldable (a a chair is a folding chair), o is the tool that does it, and i is to unfold - the - prefix reversing the action rather than negating it.

One idiom worth having: is to fold one's arms, and it carries the same double meaning as in English - the physical posture, and the refusal to do any work.

Where this fits

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Esperanto · Free printables

faldi: worksheet, infographic and listicle

Free printable study downloads for the Esperanto word "faldi" (to fold): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.

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This word is part of lesson 44.